South Africa - Land of Plenty

Enter South Africa, enter civilization. As we got closer to the Mozambique – South African border it got increasingly clear that we approached more developed and richer parts of Africa. Oncoming traffic mainly constituted of South Africans on the way to spend their summer holidays at the beach.  Thus instead of overloaded minivans and trucks carrying goats on their roof, we now met even more overloaded 4x4s, towing boats, waveriders, quads and dirtbikes. Also the roads got increasingly better, showing a clear inflow of money from South Africa. The bordercrossing was straightforward and though the lines were long it didn’t take more than an hour.

 

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Our first “shock” came when we stopped at a Spar Supermarket to get some groceries. It was huge, clean, well stocked and CHEAP! We walked around like two five-year-olds in a toy store, taking in the, for us, highly unusual sight. In fact, we were so confused by the experience that we didn’t buy anything more than some milk and bread.

 

We spent the night in Neilspruit, a town southwest of Kruger National Park, with the intention to spend Christmas in the park. Unfortunately so had the rest of South Africa (at least the ones not going to Mozambique) so ALL the parks campsites were fully booked… We are talking of a place the size of Israel, offering more than 4,000 beds and room for about 2,000 caravans. While making new plans we decided to spend the next few days as mall rats, drinking Café Latte and hot chocolate while enjoying the WIFI in the Riverside Mall. Wonderful!

 

Instead of lions in the Kruger we settled for crocs in St Lucia. St Lucia is a small, coast town most famous for its national park, the St Lucia Wetlands Park… and the hordes of drunken Afrikaans invading the town every summer. We somehow managed to find a semi-nice backpackers hangout where we could park our car and pitch the roof-top tent.  Almost forgot, on our way to the coast we passed through the Kingdom of Swaziland, a small landlocked country bordering to South Africa and Mozambique. On our way out of the country we managed to pick a border without any customs, why getting the appropriate (or any) stamp in our Carnet proved to be quite a hassle. Luckily we managed to find the most enthusiastic custom’s official in all of Africa and she fixed everything for us.

 

Från Off the Map - Africa 2

 

Från Off the Map - Africa 2

 

Back to St. Lucia. For once Christmas wasn’t all about eating, this year we actually had to spend more time finding the food than cooking and eating it. We managed to find something resembling gammon in a Spar deli, made our own meatballs and beetroot salad, gave up on turning coke into julmust (a Swedish soda), and almost broke down crying (I from joy) when some Swedes offered us two cans of pickled herring.  Thus we got a light version of the traditional ‘julbord’, but it all tasted amazing! We also got some physical exercise this Christmas (something normally avoided in favor of eating) as the place we were staying at offered free morning walks in the national park. Wonderful!

 

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Från Off the Map - Africa 2

 

A few days before Christmas a Land Rover Discovery full of South Africans and diving Equipment pulled in. They soon pitched the largest tent known to man and hit the bar and the braai (barbeque) before the last peg was in the ground. We had a great time hanging out with Paul and his mom Maria, colleague Monique and student/friend with benefits Ken.  The last night before they left the boys had conceived a contraption of doom… a bong… a funnel with 4 feet of pvc-pipe attached to it. Ken started with a massive three beers in just as many seconds. That record stood all night, probably mainly because he looked like he was in considerable pain for quite some time afterwards. Even though Paul and Ken shared an impressive 20 beers they were packed up and ready to go at 7 AM the following day. Amazing, and also a bit scary. Did I mention that more than 1,000 people die in traffic accidents in South Africa over the Holidays?

 

During our stay in St. Lucia we also visited the local Crocodile Centre, housing crocs from all over the world and also a rather impressive 5.4-meter Nile Crocodile. We arrived in time for the weekly feeding and were really anxious on seeing this huge beast in action. What a disappointment. OK, it was 5.4 meters long, but what people had failed to mention was that it was about 1.5 meters wide. The poor thing looked more like a toad than a croc and was to lazy to eat… not that it needed to, but anyway.  The smaller ones were a lot more entertaining though, splattering the crowd with pieces of chicken as they tore their food apart.

 

Från Off the Map - Africa 2

 

Från Off the Map - Africa 2

Från Off the Map - Africa 2

 

We were however lucky enough to see a wild 4+ meter croc a few days later… a somewhat more impressive sight.

 

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Leaving St. Lucia on the 25^th (in Sweden we celebrate Christmas on the 24^th) we drove for three days to Addo Elephant National Park. Surprise, the park has specialized in elephants. =) We stayed at a nice place called Orange Elephant, and decided for the first time to ditch the roof tent in favor of the smaller, but more wind resistant, ground tent. Wise call, it’d turn out, since the winds got worse over the next two days.  We slept well in our small tent and were awakened by lions roaring in the distant. Thanks to this wake up call our main goal for the day was to spot lions. The only of the big five we are yet to see. Thus we spent a whole day in the park seeing loads of elephants, antelopes, zebras, snakes, mungos, leopard tortoises, coyotes… but no lions. When we came back to our campsite at 7 pm, it was only to once again hear… lions.

 

Från Off the Map - Africa 2

 

Från Off the Map - Africa 2

 

Från Off the Map - Africa 2

 

Från Off the Map - Africa 2

 

 

Från Off the Map - Africa 2

 

When checking out the following day the owner, who looked just like Paul Sr in American Chopper, told us that overlanders stay for free if they have traveled through Africa. Best thing we’d heard in a long time! Thank you once again!!!

 

We are now in surfer hotspot Jeffrey’s Bay, trying to find a nice and calm place to spend New Year’s… we are getting old.

 

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Malawi!

It wasn’t a hard decision to leave Peponi Beach. The place sure had potential to be a haven, but now it was just a noisy nuisance… We packed up and decided to let Tanzania be and headed for Malawi. It was a three-days-drive from Peponi to the border and during that time we probably passed more speed bumps than during our 30+ days in Kenya. The speed bumps seemed to be rather inefficient though, since we were the only ones slowing down. Each town we hit the brakes a brand new Toyota flew by, passing the speed bumps at well over 100km/h. “NGOs” we couldn’t help thinking.  Our slowing-down for speed bumps did however not help when I got caught speeding, doing 75 on a 50. Yes, I got caught speeding in a Land Rover. While I apologized and offered the officer my whole arsenal of poor excuses a Toyota sedan flew by, doing 83. The officer saw his chance to write an even bigger ticket and sent me off with the words “A good driver doesn’t go faster than the road allows”. This was the second time I got caught speeding and the second time I “talked” my way out of a ticket. The first time was in Azerbaijan… For some reason I have never gotten a ticket in Sweden. =)

The border crossing into Malawi proved to be the fastest and easiest on our trip so far, and also only the second where they wanted to see the passenger of the car. Normally (I believe I can use that word after 10 border crossings in 5 months) one of us stays in the car while the other sort out the paperwork. Now I had to go get Kina so she could say “Hi” to the customs officer, after which he happily handed her the passport. All-in-all getting across the border from Tanzania to Malawi took no more than half-an-hour… Compare that to the eight hours it took us to get in to Egypt… not to mention all the Baksheesh we had to pay then.

Our first stop in Malawi was Chitimba beach, a back-packer hangout on the northern shore of Lake Malawi. The place sure was nice and offered fast (but expensive) Internet as well as a wonderful view of Lake Malawi and the outskirts of the Nyika plateau. The main disappointment was the food, as it was more expensive than Kenya and Tanzania, while the servings were embarrassingly small.

We set camp on the beach, in order to get sun on our solar panels. We did however forget to take two things into consideration: 1. We were right outside the bar and the fourth overland truck had just pulled in AND 2. Being on the beach we were as exposed to wind as we possibly could be. We went to sleep at 8.30 East African Time, meaning 7.30 Central African Time. We didn’t know we had crossed into another time zone… Anyhow, two hours later the party started in the bar and as all speakers faced us, sleeping became rather hard. I, being a true trooper, managed to sleep, while Kina lay awake until midnight when the music stopped. Two o’ clock we woke up to flashes illuminating our tent. We looked out and saw an amazing spectacle: the most amazing thunderstorm we had seen, with a never-ending stream of lightning. On the beach stood about 10 to 20 people admiring the show, something Kina thought assembled something from a bad movie: when the oblivious cast gaze upon the phenomenon in the sky just before the evil aliens attack and eat them all alive. Thus she stayed in the tent while I joined the soon-to-be-eaten crowd of drunk overlanders. I managed to get a few shots of the lightning before the wind hit me, and I ran back to the car while cursing our stupidity. Five minutes later the tent was packed up and the full force of the storm hit. It was massive. Instead of “sleeping” in the car we now had the option of stretching out on the couches in the bar. Thus I was soon fast asleep while Kina lay awake until sunrise.  Again. The next day we set camp behind the main building and had the best night’s sleep in a long time.

Our next stop was Mayoka Village in Nkhata Bay. We arrived at around 6.30 (CAT, we had reset our watches now) to a place that was more like a nightclub than a backpacker hangout. Apparently the owner had gone nuts and handed out free beer and rooms all day… chaos had ensued and people were now dancing on the bar and on the tables. We met two British overland couples that we had met in Chitimba earlier in the day. They had received two suites each for free… when we approached the owner to se “how much a room is” he was regretfully too drunk to talk why we decided to camp.

 

Från Off the Map - Africa

 

Från Off the Map - Africa

 

As Mayoka Village is situated in steep decline right on the Lake Malawi, we had to camp on the parking lot, which was not as nice and experience as lounging in the restaurant just on the shore. Furthermore it was rather windy, why we the day after decided to move into one of the beachfront chalets. At USD 15 per person per night it wasn’t cheap, but we would have several reasons to salute our decision to abandon the tent in favor of the chalet.

 

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The first reason rolled in at night, as reasons like this always do, dressed as a thunderstorm cum Armageddon. The amount and strength of the lightning was of such magnitude that night almost turned into day. Our chalet shook from the lighting impact, the wind swept right through it (forcing us to tie the patio door shut with the curtains) and outside people were running around screaming, trying to gather their tents and belongings that were scattered in the wind.

That storm, and the one that followed, was a rather nice experience since we could just cuddle up in our bed and cover ourselves with our warm and nice blankets. The second reason we enjoyed our chalet was, however, not such a nice experience. It started one night with Kina feeling a bit under the weather. She went to bed early and woke up a few hours later with a high fever. Her condition worsened the day after, and we decided to go to the local hospital to do a malaria test.

Now, impressing enough healthcare is free in Malawi, so all we had to do was to go to the lab in the hospital disguised as a farm and ask for a test. First they said the test was negative, but as we were about to get in the car a guy came running saying that it was positive. So, off to the doctor we went to get a prescription and a few minutes later we could leave the hospital with 24 yellow pills and a promise she’d get better soon. People we spoke to who had varying degrees of experience of malaria said that 24 hours after you take the first 4 pills you feel at least 50% better, and that seems to be true. 12 hours after she took the first pills her condition was unchanged, but over the next 12 hours her fever broke and she started feeling somewhat better. Magic! =)

During Kina’s malaria episode I wasn’t exactly envious of her… she looked pretty sick… but now… She can say she’s had malaria, and that’s pretty cool. Crap… =(

 

 

Richard and Lina met up with us in Mayoka, spent a few nights there before going to Lilongwe to pick up Lina’s sister.  We later caught up with them in Senga Bay and we decided to go to Liwonde National Park together. Kina and Richard found a nice campsite, but when Richard called them we were told that the roads to the campsite were impassable. Apparently a few cars had tried to get to the campsite exactly 12 months earlier, only to be stuck in the mud until APRIL! Instead we were offered to stay in a chalet for the same price as camping, USD 10 per person. We thus went the last bit to the campsite by boat, and could from afar see that this place was something extra. First off, the river it was located on offers Africa’s highest concentration of hippos and crocs.

 

Från Off the Map - Africa

 

Från Off the Map - Africa

 

Från Off the Map - Africa

 

Från Off the Map - Africa

 

Elephants, hippos, warthogs, monkeys and antelopes often rummage through the camp, and the chalets… wow…  Kina and I got a two-room chalet just by the river.

 

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We fell asleep to the sound of hippos grunting, woke up to a bushbuck knocking on a window, had warthogs on our patio at breakfast and were robbed by a baboon for lunch. Amazing! We also decided to try the boat safari and were lucky enough to see not only gazillions of hippos and crocs, but also a group of elephants swimming (and diving) in the river. In a boat you can also get a lot closer to the elephants than on land, so we got some rather nice pictures.

 

Från Off the Map - Africa

 

Från Off the Map - Africa

 

After Liwonde we went to Blantyre and to make the contrast total, we camped on the parking lot outside a backpacker hostel… offering Blantyre’s loudest bar.

We stayed in Blantyre for two nights before heading to Mozambique.

 

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Från Off the Map - Africa

A cheetah that plays football...?

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Peponi Beach, Tanga, Tanzania
We left Nairobi almost a week ago, last Saturday. Since we first ran a couple of errands, including picking up Simon’s car from the workshop, we didn’t get out of the city until lunchtime. But luck was on our side this time, since the traffic wasn’t at all as bad as the previous time we were driving down to Athi River where Simon lives.
It was really good seeing Laila and Simon again, and it was especially fun to see Simon walking around without the crutches. We had a nice evening filled with laughs, serious talks, card games and wine. Needless to say, we weren’t quite fit to make the 6-hour drive to Mombasa the next morning… So we postponed our take off until the next day, and instead spent Sunday together with Simon, Laila, Gray and Suzy, two of Simon’s neighbors.
We started with a short game drive, or should I say bird drive. We had earlier spotted a lot of vultures landing a bit further down from Simons house, so we got in the cars and drove down to see what was the big attraction for them. It turned out to be the carcasses of two dead cows and beside the huge group of vultures feasting there, there were also a couple of eagles. It turned out that one of the eagles were a rare sighting in Africa, a lesser spotted eagle. Simon, who sees thousands of birds each year, said that this particular species he only sees once every three or four year, if he’s lucky… So i guess we brought them some good luck again! :-)

Vulture going in for dinner...

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After the bird watching we went over to Gray and Suzy’s place and had a wonderful lunch. Also, to Gustav’s great pleasure, he and Gray went off in Grays seriously modified Land Rover Defender 90. There is an off road competition in Kenya called Rhino Charge. In short; the one who goes between a number of checkpoints the shortest route wins. So the key to success is therefore to have a car that can go pretty much straight through or over anything. Grays has that…
When the guys returned from their little adventure in the nearby quarry, they literally walked on air! Boys and their toys, huh…?

Simon, Gustav & Gray with a seriously pimped Land Rover.

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We then decided to take a drive up to another neighbors house, where they have a tame (somewhat at least) cheetah. Her name is Toli, and she was previously a luxury pet in downtown Nairobi. Of course that is not a proper place for such a cat, so now she has been relocated to her new owners out on the countryside instead.

On the way over there, it was a couple of kilometers drive, we spot something rare these days in this particular area. A wild cheetah crosses to road in front of us, and we silently watch her for the following 15 minutes as she stalks a pray, an impala, and makes a go at a kill. However, this wasn’t her lucky day, the impala got away with a few inches to spare. We were nevertheless happy, since we got some amazing wild life viewing without expecting it.

Wild cheetah stalking a pray...

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Later on when we pull up to the farm where Toli lives, we get our next encounter with a beautiful cheetah. Toli is resting on the side of the pool when we get there. Gray and Suzy had bought a football for Toli to play with, and that was probably a really good thing… Because when we’re walking up to her she suddenly rises and get a really dangerous look in her eyes. She lowers her head and set focus on Gray, and then she begins to stalk… Gray sounds a bit panicked when he urges Suzy to throw the football, and I for one can understand him!
Luckily, Toli finds the football a more tempting pray than Gray so she sets off after it right away. :-)
We spend another half an hour or so playing with her, and it is just mind-blowing being this close to such a magnificent creature.

Toli is taking a brake from the football game.

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Frankly, we are really lucky.
On this trip we have gotten to do so many things that one normally doesn’t come close to, and we owe it all to our friends in Africa. Thanks to them and their generosity, we have experienced things that the every day tourist can only dream of. So thank you to all of you out there!!!

Now we have left Kenya for Tanzania, and we are setting course for Malawi within the next week. The drive from Athi to Mombasa was easier then expected, and on Tuesday we arrived were we are now; Peponi beach just south of Tanga. We are leaving this place today though and instead we are on our way to the beaches south of Dar es Salaam. This place was supposed to be somewhat of a paradise, but unfortunately it hasn’t lived up to our expectations. This could have something to do with the fact that there’s been two school classes the entire time we’ve been here, and they’ve made A LOT of noise. Teenagers and slack teachers = bad combination.
Anyway, we spent the day out at sea yesterday, taking a dhow to a nearby coral reef and we did some snorkeling. It was good fun, although it can’t really compare to the snorkeling in Asia. We have to look forward to the scuba diving in Lake Malawi instead! :-)

Toli seems to think that Gray looks tasty...

Från Off the Map - Africa

Take cover...

Från Off the Map - Africa

Thanks to East African Canvas we now have really good seat covers in our car!

Log in to their website to check their amazing tents and other products.
Everything is custom made to fit each clients need.

www.eastafricancanvas.com

Falcons, hyenas and good friends

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Nairobi

Back in Nairobi again. We spent the weekend at Simon & Laila’s place about 35km out of town. Those 35km took us approximately 3 hours to drive when we left town on Saturday afternoon. Driving in Nairobi is actually the worst traffic experience so far. Everyone claims that Cairo is a driver’s nightmare, but then you haven’t been stuck in Nairobbery at rush hour…
We did however succeed in our effort to get out of town eventually, and drove up to Simon’s place at about 5 pm on Saturday.
Simon seems to manage his injury quite well; he is already walking although he needs his crutches most of the time. But considering the fact that he fractured his hip and dislocated a few of his joints just two weeks ago, we were highly impressed with seeing him up and about.
After a quick hello we all got in to their Range Rover and took off for a short Game Drive before sunset. The area were Simon lives is teeming with wildlife; wildebeest, zebras, giraffes, antelopes, gazelles, hyenas, bat eared foxes amongst some of the mammals. And then we have the birds… Raptors left and right, and Simon must be some sort of bird hybrid since he can spot just about anything when the rest of us are just seeing yellow grass and blue skies.

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Later that evening we went on a nightly Game Drive as well, using a hand held spotlight to find the animals. Their eyes reflects the light amazingly well and Simon can tell right away what kind of animal it is just by looking at that reflection… Impressive!
After a bunch of springhares that jumps around astoundingly similar to small kangaroos, we also spotted bat eared foxes and a pair of hyenas. When the spotlight then died on us, and the temperature dropped enough to at least make me chatter my teeth we decided to turn around and head for home again.
Suddenly, a pair of red eyes glimmered right in front of us. And next to it another pair, and beyond those the whole savannah seemed to glimmer red. We had without any warning entered right into a pack of hyenas. Unexpectedly we were surrounded by at least twenty individuals, Simon tried to get the camera up, I threw myself onto the spotlight to make it work again, Laila did a great job in steering the car between rocks, holes and hyenas, and Wes & Gustav were holding on for dear life up on the roof of the Range Rover. Since the animals were no more than a couple of meters away from the vehicle, falling down on the ground would be a seriously bad thing to do…
It was almost surreal being surrounded by all these predators in the middle of a dark African night, a memory for life indeed.

Back at the house Gustav and I set camp just outside the fence to Simon’s yard since our car wouldn’t fit through the gate. Just when we’d climbed up into our beloved roof tent we heard animal sounds over the savannah. We identified them as more hyenas and they were closing in by the minute. Pretty soon they were practically just below us and we fell asleep to their calling in the night. Awesome…

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The next morning brought not only sunshine but also a visitor from above… Tim, a year-and-a-half old lanner falcon flew in to greet us. Simon has had him for quite some time, although Tim lives in total freedom and comes and goes as he pleases. He is however a very social guy and this morning he wanted in on breakfast. Since muesli isn’t a falcon’s idea of a good way to start the day, Laila fetched a couple of chickens from the fridge and then the show began.
Simon, broken hip and all, stood in the big field swinging a dead chicken by a rope whilst Tim circled above and attacked from every angle. He is really fast and some of his maneuvers are simply inexplicable, he is able to turn in acrobatic ways in full speed all the time with his eyes on the target. Gustav filmed parts of it and as soon as possible we’ll post a video here along with the photos.
We also had the opportunity to hold this wild raptor ourselves and I can only say that it was really a powerful experience to look a falcon straight into his eyes, only a few inches away…

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The enormous work that Simon & Laila put into conserving raptors in Africa is really inspiring. Unfortunately the accident with the water tank has set their plans back a bit, but hopefully Simon will recover quickly so that they can proceed again.
Simon and Laila are truly good people, the kind that you just enjoy being around. Sometimes one can talk about energy thieves when meaning someone who really gets on your nerves and drags you down. Well, these people are the absolute opposite of that!
Their energy and good nature literately lifts you up and it is all very inspiring.
I’m really glad that we got to spend some more time with them, and I hope that we can repay them in any way possible.
Please check out their website and support the work they are doing. And also, they have some truly amazing pictures of birds of prey, which eventually will be published in a book.
Do get a copy of that one!

http://simonthomsett.wildlifedirect.org/

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We spent two nights at their place, and now we are back in the big city.
We are planning on leaving town quite soon though, it’s getting a bit to familiar around here now. The itchy feet is back again…
We do however need to stay a couple of more days since we are waiting for some equipment to be made for us. Thanks to East African Canvas we’ll soon travel in luxury inside our Bumblebee. They will kindly enough supply us with custom made seat covers for the car and that is highly appreciated! Beyond the fact that they will take care of some of the dirt and the dust that the roads of Africa have to offer, they also look great! Handmade in durable canvas and leather they will last for many years to come, and we are really grateful to Gary at East African Canvas. Beside the smaller products that they manufacture their main export is their incredible tented camps. Have a look at their website and prepare to be amazed…
http://www.eastafricancanvas.com/

Everything is custom made to fit the need of each client, and we can only say; WOW!
Tent is really not the proper word to describe these constructions…
If we ever move to a warmer climate, this is the company that’s going to build our house!
They are also making a new cover for Wes’ kayak, and he’s totally stoked about it. He is planning to use it as a small one-man tent as well, so he’s made the design himself. We’ll see in a couple of hours how it all turns out. :-)

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By the end of the week we’ll probably hit the coast and it will definitely be nice with some warmth and sun again. Kenya’s highland is not exactly warm even if it is on the equator. The altitude brings the temperature down and since the rainy period is beginning now it’s surprisingly cold considering the fact that we are in Africa.
The coast is a lot warmer though, so we’ll definitely get the chance to thaw there!

Raptors and Carnivores

Carnivore… I never thought I’d say ”I’m going to have vegetarian food for the rest of the week” but that’s exactly what I said after our dinner at Carnivore. A brief explanation might be in place: Carnivore is an all-you-can-eat meat restaurant in Nairobi. When you enter you get a small flag on your table and as long as the flag is up the waiters will keep bringing you meat. We had beef, chicken, pork, turkey, ostrich and crocodile… a veritable meat-orgy.

 

The service was impeccable and so was the food. After about an hour and a half we decided to surrender while we could still move. We are not sure exactly how much we had eaten, but two pounds per person is a low guess. For me, there was a price to pay since I had to spend the night sweating and trying to calm my rather shocked stomach. “Meat? What is this?” We are rather happy that we spent a few weeks at Ann’s, preparing our stomachs with real food…

 

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As previously stated we have moved from Jungle Junction to Wildebeest Camp and we are enjoying every minute of it. Until yesterday, that is, when the skies opened and we were hit by the worst rain we have seen since Bwindi Impenetrable forest in Uganda. Kina and I were pretty well off in our rooftent, but poor Wes was not that lucky. When we arrived here he and I walked around the entire compound until we found the “perfect” spot. It was high, secluded and all in all really nice. What we failed to notice were the three drainpipes exiting the wall three meters behind his tent. Wes had managed to fall asleep before the rain really took off, but was awakened by a sound quite similar to the Bujagali Falls in Jinja. Water was flooding from the pipes and what once was a nice spot for a tent had been transformed into a river. He quickly abandoned ship (ironically his kayak was right beside the tent) and went to sleep in one of the sofas by the TV. That’s were we found him fast asleep at 9.30, so it was probably really comfortable.

 

Today Ann is coming back to town, she has been away for a week guiding a safari, and we are going to hang out with her until we all leave. We are either going to Ann’s place for a few nights or to her friend Simon’s. Simon is a raptor expert Ann has known for several years and he and his colleague Laila are about to take off on a road trip to South Africa themselves, with the purpose of them taking pictures of all of Africa’s raptor species. Their plans have however been a bit postponed since Simon had a pretty nasty accident last week. He was climbing around on his water cistern when the whole thing (1,000 liters of water) just collapsed, landing on top of poor Simon… who already had landed on top of a barbed wire fence. The result was a broken hip, dislocated knee and hipbone and a gridiron piercing his thigh… We met him three days after the accident and he was not happy with the doctor who wouldn’t let him leave the hospital. While we were there the doctor came around, promising Simon that he could leave the next day, but that he wouldn’t be able to walk for four weeks. Three days later Simon could walk using crutches. Impressive!

 

For more info on their project: http://simonthomsett.wildlifedirect.org/

 

Right now we are trying to clean and dry Wes’s stuff and we have over the last two days managed to play around 20 rounds of Scrabble and Wes and I have been rather busy planning to build a Tomcat. It’s a hard life here in Africa… 

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I must also mention the dogs here at WC… they are called Barney and Fatty, but should be called Smelly and Fatty. Though Fatty isn’t that fat anymore. Barney loves rolling in smelly stuff and can hear someone making a sandwich from 200 meters away. Fatty loves chasing birds… or rather bird shadows, so he sits around, stupidly looking at the ground in front of him and then takes off when a shadow swoops by. So far he hasn’t managed to catch one… It was rather sad the other night though, when he sat under a façade light, waiting for a bird to fly by. It must have been a long night for him.

 

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But, our stay in Nairobi hasn’t only been rain and Scrabble, we have also had some work done on the car. Richard and Milan recommended us a 4x4 workshop near their campsite, so we went there to have our dear Bumblebee serviced. Apart from the normal oil and filter changing, we had the brakes changed and also the springs. The result was quite simply amazing, it’s a brand new car. Speedbumps are now a breeze. =)

 

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Enjoyin' Nairobbery

We've now spent almost a week in Nairobi, and it's actually been quite quiet...
So far we've enjoyed the luxuries like free WiFi, huge Lattes and excellent food.

Up until today we've stayed at a campsite called Jungle Junction, but today we changed venues and moved to Wildebeest Camp and we really can't understand why we didn't go here sooner.
This place is quite wonderful, and the management is hilariously entertaining!
Right now we are sitting with the owner, her 6month year-old son, Wesley (our American friend from Uganda), Patrick & Sarah (who are two other overlanders also heading south), round a table exchanging horrible stories and laughing a lot.

Soon we're heading of to Carnivore for a big dinner; All the grilled meat you can eat for about $25!
So, we'll definitely won't go to sleep hungry tonight...
:-)

Back in Kenya, wonderful!

There is a table at the pub at NRE in Jinja where it says ”The Black Hole”. The reason for this rather melodramatic statement is simply the fact that if you’re not careful, the place just sucks you in and you cannot leave. Don’t believe me? Ask Jake, the manager, he has been there for ten years now; which is a bit longer than the initially intentioned two weeks.

It is however completely understandable, for our time at NRE was simply wonderful. The last week we mainly hung out with Wesley (a kayaker from Montana), Tom (a carpenter from Australia), Mona (an aid worker from Germany) and Sarah (an aid worker from Australia). Wesley had his tent right next to ours, so we were neighbors. We all spent most of the nights having a barbeque at “our place”, engulfing vast quantities of fillet and roasted potatoes. Life sure is good. =)

One night in the bar Wesley got a great idea: Why not arrange a boda boda race? Boda bodas are the small motorcycle taxis that swarm like flies all across Uganda. Their drivers drive like maniacs and the idea was to make them race for a decent lump of money. The first price was set to USH 10,000 (USD 6) and the drivers went crazy when Wesley presented his idea. Before we knew it, the whole place had been transformed into one big party. What used to be any no-name gravel road in eastern Uganda was now Rio de Janeiro during the Carnival. About a hundred people (where did they all come from?) were singing and dancing on the street and the four contestants where revving their engines on the makeshift starting point. The race was, eventually, a success. Due to a false start and a stalled engine the race was divided into two heats, also Kina pitched in for a price for the runner up. That evening was quite amazing, have never had such an surreal experience in the middle of nowhere…

Från Off the Map - Africa

Life sure was good in Jinja, but since Ann (a good friend of my uncle and aunt) was waiting for us in Kenya we did however decide it was time to call it a day (or rather five weeks) and set course for Kenya. One day’s drive (300km) from Jinja lays the town Eldoret, where we previously had spent time at the Naiberi River Campsite. The owner, Raj, had promised us that his mechanics could have a look at our car, so the day after our arrival was spent at Raj’s factory, servicing the car and mounting padlock holders on all 5 doors. Since we are going to Nairobbery, padlocks are essential. Whatever isn’t welded to the car should be padlocked – and now it is.

We spent three nights in Eldoret and the Naiberi River Campsite before going to Ann’s place at Solio Ranch near Nyeri. Solio is a 7,000-hectare game reserve right on the foot of Mount Kenya offering not only a great view of Kenya’s highest mountain, but also an embarrassingly high percentage of Kenya’s total population of black and white rhinos. Embarrassing for the other parks and game reserves in Kenya, that is.

For the night of our arrival Ann had invited the owner of the park, Edward, and his “cultural wife” Landi for dinner. The two proved to make a really colorful couple and were as friendly as interesting and we had a great evening together. Edward offered us free access to the park and we were happy to accept. The following day we went to the park office and after signing the indemnity forms we were allowed to enter the park.

WOW… after 5 minutes in the park we were simply a loss for words. The place was stunning! There were rhinos and buffalos everywhere and we soon realized that we were all alone in the park. Magic!

Från Off the Map - Africa

The day after we went to Nanyuki, the nearest town, to stock up on supplies and service Ann’s car. Since Nanyuki is the last civilized outpost before the scarcely inhabited northern part of Kenya, the stores are surprisingly well stocked. For lunch Ann took us to one of here favorite restaurants, the Trout Tree. We were quite surprised to see that the anonymous gravel road took us to one of the coolest restaurants we have ever seen. Built in a tree, overlooking a fish farm, the Trout Tree really lives up to its name. The resident colubus monkeys and the hyrax living in the bar add to the experience. The food was also great.

On our way home a huge truck carrying a stone crusher blocked the small gravel road we had to pass. The truck driver had seriously misjudged his trailer’s size and ground clearance so it was now hanging on a narrow railroad track. Hence we had to drive on the side of the road and crossing the railroad track on a stretch not particularly suited for crossing. Not even with a Land Rover. We did come across without any problems, but a clonking noise from the front soon raised our concern. It turned out our railroad crossing had resulted in a cracked front right shock absorber mount. Crap. The 25km drive home took us a good two hours, but was actually really nice. The sunset was astounding and the full moon was as beautiful as can be. When we came home Wanjiku (Ann’s housekeeper) had prepared a wonderful meal and Ann had made us ice-cold gin and tonics. So life was actually quite good once you think about it.

The following day we then had to make another trip to CMC Nanyuki, though this time to pick up parts for Bumblebee and not for Ann’s car. Since Bumblebee was injured we rode with Ann, an experience on its own since neither Kina nor I knew a Defender could go that fast. G4 challenge, anyone? =) Thanks to Ann we also got a 25% discount on the parts… so we only had to pay 5 times more than home. Spare parts sure are expensive in this part of the world. Before leaving we also got a tip on how to change the parts: just jack the car up on one side and then slide in the new mounting bracket on top of the spring. Easy enough, right? No. Bumblebee has a 2” lift… so the standard procedure doesn’t quite work. Instead we had to “compress” the springs with ropes before jacking the car up. It’s said that practice makes perfect, so the first spring (the practice) was almost sent out into the atmosphere – thus we learned that we also needed to tie a rope holding the spring to the side. The first side took about 2 hours and just as we were done Ann had to take her car to get some good cellular reception… but she had gotten a flat. Luckily we had all the tools out, so five minutes later she had her spare on and was good to go. Fixing the suspension on the left hand side took a mere 1 hour 15 minutes. Guess practice do make perfect. =)

In the middle of our Bumblebee surgery I got a call: Richard from Adventure Family called to say they had reached Kenya and our vicinity. After checking with Ann the two families were cordially invited to Solio Ranch and Casa de Olivecrona. Three hours later the house had been transformed into an overland camp, with three expedition-prepared Land Rovers parked on the yard.

Från Off the Map - Africa

The Adventure Family (-es) stayed for a week, and when two journalists arrived to interview Ann we were 9 adults and 4 kids in the house. Poor Wanjiku did an extraordinary job feeding us all. Kudos! Wanjiku was however not the only one working hard, since the rest of us spent the day primarily cutting down trees and fixing cars. Milan is a mechanic (with a PhD) so soon were all Land Rovers in the area properly tuned and serviced.

We also had time to visit the park. This time guided by Edward and Landi. Amazing!

The next day the journalists wanted some pictures of Ann and Solio's trademark rhinos for the article, and Kina joined them to the park. Lucky her, as they got to see a leopard. With a prey. In a tree. Incredible! I was green of envy, though happy for her.

Från Off the Map - Africa

After five nights our Swedish friends headed for Nairobi, to pick up Pia’s parents and travel with them for three weeks. The house got remarkably quiet after they left and so the dogs, the cat and I passed out cold in the sofas.

Over the next few days it rained pretty heavily, turning the entire area into a big mud bath. The soil here is called black cotton soil and has the annoying tendency of turning into glue/soap when wet. It sticks to your shoes and tires like nothing else, and then you slip around like crazy. In fact, only 4x4 can drive up to Ann’s house after a rain, even though the terrain is rather flat. After these few days of rain Ann’s friend Ritva flew in from Nairobi (or rather Sweden) and the day after her arrival Kina, her and I decided to go for a game drive in Solio. We soon learned that when black cotton soil has absorbed enough water it turns into custard like consistency… and that was now what the roads looked like. The first half of the trip was on high ground, but once we headed back we had to go by the “river”, where the road now was more mud than anything else. Bumblebee soon, once again, proved to be the best car in the world as we simply flew through deep mud holes where I thought we’d have to spend the night. Awesome! After one of these mud holes (or mud-stretches) we suddenly saw something that made our day, or even week: Two leopards (a female and a half-grown cub) ran across the road not more than 15 meters in front of us. They then stopped in the bushes besides the road and we got a long, good look of a leopard behind. Anyhow, seeing two leopards together is rather rare, so we were all really happy; so happy that it even was fun to clean off the car after the drive… and that was needed. Even the roof tent was drenched in mud.

Från Off the Map - Africa

The day after it was time for Ritva to go back to work in Nairobi and for the rest of us to party. Alpanna, the Indian-Kenyan running the store where we get all our groceries turned 50 and we were all invited for a true Kenyan party. So we spent the next 6 hours drinking wine, chatting with all kinds of interesting people and eating all the Indian food we could. Marvelous!

We will now spend another two days at Ann’s before going to Nairobi, Masai Mara and then Tanzania. We will sure miss this place, as it has become a second home for us, for which we are forever grateful to Ann. Thank you Ann!!!

Från Off the Map - Africa

Ethiopia - Kenya - Uganda

Leaving New York is never easy, REM sings, but you sure can’t say that about Ethiopia. It’s actually really sad; Ethiopia is one of the most beautiful countries we have ever seen, but we never felt at home, let alone welcome. The friendly people we met were really friendly, but everyone else was really in your face, always asking for stuff and never giving you a break.

After Gonder we stayed a few nights in Bahir Dar, right by Lake Tana and the source of the Blue Nile. We found a really nice hotel overlooking the lake and had a great time hanging out with fellow overlanders Mike and Bonnie, as well as two Swedish guys, Lars and Håkan, who had been working in Bahir Dar for a couple of years. After a while our Brazilian friends caught up with us as well. They had gone through the Simian mountains and had a great time, filled with everything from snow to monkeys. From Bahir Dar it was a two-day drive to Addis, offering us some spectacular scenery as we descended into the Blue Nile Gorge, a big canyon created by the Blue Nile. On our way we did however get a bit more excitement than we bargained for as we suddenly lost the breaks. Kina did however do a great job getting us down safely and Bumblebee was soon ascending the other side of the gorge.

In Addis we found that the Swedish church has a big, gated compound in the outskirts of town. We set course for the US Embassy, since we thought that would be easier to find than the neighboring Swedish church. Upon arrival we met Kersti, who had run the church for the last years and just returned from a few weeks vacation back in Sweden. After installing ourselves Kersti invited us for some coffee and Swedish knäckebröd (untranslatable) and Västerbotten cheese; thus winning our eternal gratitude!

Addis was cold and rainy, but still rather nice. We had a good time with the people at the Swedish church and we also really enjoyed the Ethiopian cuisine. We were also showed to a good workshop that helped us out with servicing the car. The air filter looked like it had just gone through the Sudan… which it had. After the service Bumblebee was like a new car. Apparently air is an important ingredient for a combustion engine. Who would have known?

From Addis it was a two-day drive to the border. The second day was long, long, long, but also really nice since the country got more scarcely populated the further south we came. Before entering the border town Moyale all we could see along the road was Dik-diks (the world’s smallest antelope) and coyotes. It was wonderful!



Crossing the border to Kenya was a breeze. I had been really anxious to see how they dealt with moving the traffic from the right to the left, but since we were the only people crossing it was simply a matter turning left. A bit too easy… Incidentally, it was the only easy thing we did that day. We had been recommended to take off early since northern Kenya offers nothing but appalling roads, but though we got up at around 6 o’clock we had no idea what expected. Enter, the worst roads in Africa. The road from Moyale to Isiolo is 460 kilometers and it took us two long days of driving. The first 240ks took 10 hours and the second day was not faster. Even though we were going at snail speed, we managed to break all for shock absorbers… we are talking heavy duty Old Man Emu Gas shocks… luckily they didn’t cave in totally until we reached Nakuru, a day from Isiolo. When they went they did however go with a “bang” right outside the workshop. Perfect timing! They day had been pretty good as well, as we ended up on a small gravel road running right beside the fence to a private game reserve, giving us a great view of tones of animals without having to pay any entrance fee. Excellent!

Due to our breakdown we treated ourselves to two nights at the Waterbuck hotel, which coincidentally was the closest as well as the best hotel in town. The endless supply of hot, running water felt like heaven. As did the bed and the HUGE breakfast buffet.

Following our two days of luxury we decided it was time to camp again. The town of Eldoret was about a day’s drive away and we had heard there was a nice campsite right outside of town. Man, that was the understatement of the year; the Naiberi River Campsite proved to be the best campsite we had seen so far. Ever. Anywhere. The campsite was created and run by a Kenyan-Indian named Raj, to whom it was merely a fun side activity to his main gig, a big textile factory in Eldoret. Raj likes to travel, but doesn’t have the time. In order to meet other travelers and get to share their stories he decided to build the best campsite in Africa. He has succeeded. Raj also had his mechanic take a look at Bumblebee, since he had felt a bit unstable on the drive from Nakuru to Eldoret. It turned out the problem was a loose bolt on a stabilizer rod and the problem was solved within minutes.

This was our last day in Kenya for this time. In order to save some money we had only gotten a 7-day transit visa and we now had to get to Uganda.


Crossing the border to Uganda was not as easy as entering Kenya. There were people everywhere, we had to get insurance (we got a yellow card that will hopefully cover the rest of the trip) and we had to pay road tax. It was a mess. Once through customs we could however relax and take in the beauty of the scenery. The bad roads kept our speed down, so we had quite a lot of time to marvel the lush, thick jungle and green rolling hills.

It was almost dinnertime when we reached the Nile River Explorer’s Campsite in Jinja, thus we got to have dinner overlooking the sunset over the White Nile. Magnificent! Jinja is the adrenalin capital of Uganda, but we didn’t produce that much action juice during our stay here. While people were rafting and kayaking left and right around us, we were chilling in the shade, reading, having a good time and simply enjoying life. We met two Swedish guys, Marcus and Oscar, who had come here for the kayaking. When “the boys” wanted to go to a place called Hairy Lemon we decided to join them to the small island, downstream in the Nile.

The Hairy Lemon turned out to be a little piece of paradise, hidden in the middle of nowhere. There was only one problem, the accommodation was full board only, and the food was appalling. After two nights we decided to leave for the town of Jinja, and later Kampala, where we spent a few nights before heading for Ssesse Islands, for some RnR before meeting the gorillas in Rwanda. Or so we thought. An hour before we were supposed to board the ship that was going to take us to Ssese we got a call from Leslie, the woman who helped us get the gorilla tracking permits. Apparently there had been a mix-up and our permits had been sold twice. Crap. She had however been able to hunt down two permits for tracking in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forrest National reserve two days later, so we simply turned our car around and set course for Bwindi. We arrived the day after… just at the border to Congo.

As we had dinner at the community run campsite we were staying at a Boda Boda (a local motorcycle taxi) pulled up. We looked at each other, trying to figure out where the US Boda Boda-passenger had started his journey. It was quite far to the nearest town, and that really wasn’t a place were you’d expect tourists to go. It turned out he had gone from Kabale, a staggering 3.5 hours away! Craig, the passenger, immediately won our respect and that was even before we got to hear some of his stories (more about that later).

The gorilla tracking was amazing! We were first assigned to the B-group, but the people who had visited them the day before only got to see two gorillas, which would make the going rate USD 250 per gorilla peek… can’t say it’d be worth it. Anyhow, we did quite a lot of begging and were eventually moved from B to H, the biggest family in the park. 27 gorillas.

Since we were allowed to tag along another group it was 10 of us making our way through the jungle. 10 Wzungos (foreigners) that is; add one guide, two guards and 8 porters and it was quite a party making its way through the undergrowth. It took us three-and-a-half hours to get to the gorillas, but once we arrived all signs of exhaustion quickly vanished as we got to see the first gorilla sitting next to a tree, just chilling. The following hour just flew by. We saw around 20 gorillas of all shapes and sizes. The silverback was huge! The trek back was a bit shorter but we were all quite tired, and happy, when we got back to the cars.

In order to save some money we decided not to go to Rwanda, since it would imply costs of around USD 200 just to cross the border. Instead we set course for Lake Bunyonyi, a beautiful lake that actually has crayfish. The campsite was very nice, but we never felt quite at home. The personnel were all rather pushy and furthermore the crayfish was quite a disappointment. The day before we left a car identical to Bumblebee pulled in. The driver, Ben, had gone from London to Cape Town, meeting his now girlfriend Bree in Ghana, and they were now on their way home. Ben didn’t consider driving through Africa to be enough of a challenge, so he is also running five marathons and climbing the five highest peaks of Africa. Quite impressive! He has now done Mt Kenya, is set for Kilimanjaro and we will try to meet them in Nairobi, when he is doing the Nairobi Marathon. Somehow I don’t think he expects a medal.

Getting to Ssese was pretty interesting. The “boat” taking us over Lake Victoria didn’t have a proper port to dock in, so we all had to reverse aboard. Or rather up… it was steep! But, with low gear and diff lock it was a breeze for Bumblebee. The Toyota minivans had a pretty hard time though. On Ssese we stayed at a really quiet and rather idyllic campsite just by the water. After three nights we needed some more action and headed back to Kampala and the Red Chili (they had free wifi!). Four days later we were back in Jinja with Marcus and Oscar, and we are all now chilling in the shade since it is rather hot today. Life is, however, pretty great. =)

We’ve (or rather I’ve) been horribly bad at updating our English blog, but we promise to improve our productivity from now on. The thing is, up until now we’ve mainly been writing for friends and family back home, so Swedish have been the only language needed. But now we are meeting so many great people from all over the world, and we would love to be able to keep contact with as many as possible, and this is one way of doing just that.

Ethiopia - New country, new bugs...

The last two nights in Khartoum we spent at a campsite in the outskirts of town. Upon arrival we met a British couple that had just spent a year in Africa and now were heading north, home. They gave us a lot of information about the road ahead and also told us that it’s dangerous to drive too fast on convex roads; they had rolled their car in Masai Mara doing that. Four weeks and a new body later they could leave Kenya.

Leaving Khartoum we set course for Gedaref, a town near the border to Ethiopia. Since we’d learned from our mistakes, we decided to find a cheap hotel in town rather than to risk having to get up in the middle of the night to fold up our tent due to the winds. This was however easier said than done. Gedaref turned out to be less than a one-horse town… barely a one-donkey town… The three hotels the town had to offer can in retrospect be categorized as follows: The first was too expensive, the second wouldn’t let us see the room before we paid and the third wouldn’t let us stay without us showing a marriage certificate. The town didn’t feel like a place we’d like to park our car unattended anyhow, so we set course for the bush-camp waypoint were our Brazilian friends were staying.

Reaching the campsite all seemed great: the location was nice, there were no houses nearby and the wind was completely still. Tired since our last night in Khartoum had barely offered any sleep at all we went to bed at 8 PM.

In the middle of the night Kina woke me up, the wind was tearing the tent apart… or so it sounded. Kina went out (I was barely conscious) and tucked in the rain cover under itself, thus disabling the wind from catching it, and the problem was solved. When she came back in I asked what time it was and we both first thought her watch was broken… it was 10PM.

Happily that our problems had been solved so easily we were soon fast asleep… only to be awakened by a tornado tearing the tent apart, though this time it was for real. Shocked we got dressed (poorly) and went out to commence the rescue operation. The wind was so fierce we had to scream on the top of our lungs to communicate, even though we were a mere three meters apart. Furthermore the wind carried so much dust and debris that we could barely keep our eyes open. A few minutes later we had however, somehow, managed to get the tent packed up, together with some of our belongings such as a book, a flashlight, a water bottle and some underwear. At least the tent was now safe. We were now in the car, it was just after midnight and we realized we had a long night ahead of us. It was however rather cozy, since we were dry, the tent was safe and we had front row seats to a spectacular storm. The car was rocking in the wind while the sky was covered in thunder and lightning. It was actually quite impressive.

The next day, our last in Sudan, offered an amazing change in scenery. As we got closer to Ethiopia it got greener and greener, while the appearance of the people changed from the modest Muslim dressing we had gotten accustomed to during our time in northern Africa, to more “traditional” African. Also people were now carrying stuff on their head to an increased extent.

The border crossing was a breeze. Getting out of Sudan was really easy once they realized we were not entering the country, but leaving it. Control isn’t as strict here as in Schengen… Getting in to Ethiopia was equally easy; though it took a while if you count the time it took to drive from the border and immigration office to customs office, 35kms inland. The distance took a good two hours to cover since the roads were in an appalling state. The nature was however simply breathtaking! After two months of sand, dust and desert the lush, green hills of Ethiopia seemed like paradise! Thanks to the altitude and the rain season the air was also crisp and clean, something our lungs really appreciated after dusty Sudan.

After a few hours of climbing the hills we found a wonderful place to camp, offering a breathtaking view of the mountains and also a river and a waterfall. Best of all, it was no wind what so ever. Confident that we would now, eventually, get a good night’s sleep we set tent and went to bed. The very same second that Kina lay down, uttering the words “This should be ok”, all hell broke loose. Rain, thunder, lightning, and wind shook the tent. We decided not to give up so easily this time and spent the next 20 minutes holding the tent down… which proved to work since the wind soon subsided, though we now had an in-tent pool by our head-side, where Kina had struggled to keep the rain cover from being torn to pieces. As we were now really tired some water couldn’t keep us from getting some sleep, so we just moved our pillows a bit, happy that we got a big tent.

We would however not get away that easy… I woke up at around 3 AM, feeling rather uneasy. My stomach was upset and I couldn’t get any rest. An hour later Kina woke up, asking what was wrong (why suffer in silence?) and that was my cue to get up, go out and throw up. For the third time in a week I now had to make a bed in the driver’s seat, since it was closer to the “bathroom” from there. I’ll spare you the details, but Kina didn’t get much sleep either…

The day after Kina did the driving while I was sitting in the passenger seat trying to get as much fluids down as possible. Tired and sick, the kids running beside the car screaming “YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU!” were even more tiring than they would have been otherwise… though the kid using his penis as some kind of boxing ball was actually quite amusing. We are however still trying to figure out exactly what he wanted to achieve with his “stunt”. We will remember him though, so if that was his goal then mission accomplished.

After we had just passed a group of kids I had to get out… my stomach was still not happy… I went out to the front of the car and through the corner of my eye I could see some of the kids come running, screaming the now classic “YOU! YOU! YOU!” and “Give money! Give pen!” Well… they got something all right… I didn’t see this myself, but as Kina told me one of the kids had just reached me when I began throwing up, thus shocking the kid sending him away screaming with a priceless look on his face. Guess he will think twice before running after a Land Rover again.

We stopped in the town of Gonder, where we found a fairly cheap place to stay. The room is a dump, but the garden is really nice. Best of all, it’s really quiet.

Sweden to Sudan

Two months on the road. Two months older. Two months smarter. Two months dirtier. Two months happier. =)

We are now in Khartoum, Sudan, recovering from 3 days of off-road driving through the deserts of northern Sudan. Since we now have a website in English as well as in Swedish we have deemed it necessary to also write a few blog posts in English.

As this is our first it will be a brief summary of our trip so far.

We took off from Karlskoga, Sweden, on June 9. What had not been properly installed in the car was simply ducttaped to its intended position or, better yet, just thrown into the mess in the trunk. We had planned to take off in an orderly fashion with the car in perfect order… but now we were in a hurry: on June 13 we were to meet Kina’s parents and aunt and uncle in Venice, Italy.

We took the long way through Sweden, starting with a stop in Örebro where we got a GPS. Wouldn’t want to go away without one… 20 minutes later Gustav dropped the receipt (and thus the warranty) somewhere on the Swedish highway E18, heading east to Stockholm. His excuse was that we weren’t exactly likely to find a Garmin dealer in the middle of nowhere, Africa, anyway and thus the receipt really wasn’t necessary… he did however also get on the phone to the store where the GPS was bought and arranged for a copy of the receipt to be sent to Kina’s parents.

Reaching Stockholm we first picked up Gustav’s friend Ludvig and then spent another hour saying hi and goodbye to a group of friends. It was late when we reached Stigtomta and we were soon fast asleep… not yet realizing we were actually on our way.

Two days later we had said goodbye to most of our friends and family and set course for Trelleborg, where we were to board the ferry taking us from Sweden to Rostock, Germany. As a cabin was 800 SEK (USD 130) we set camp under a table in the restaurant. With earplugs and a t-shirt over your eyes it’s possible to sleep basically anywhere.

Traveling to Munich we got to see the best of Germany from the Autobahn. We both decided that it was highly unlikely we would see roads as good anywhere on the rest of the trip. After buying a compressor we stayed at a campsite at the foot of the Alps. It was beautiful! And cold!

On the evening of the 13th we reached Venice and a small campsite near the city, a mere 20 minutes by boat to the Piazza de Marco. This was our base for the next three nights, though the majority of the time was spent in town with Kina’s family.

After a great weekend and a tear-filled goodbye we were once again on our own. Passing San Marino on our way to Sicily it became clear to us that: 1. Italy is beautiful and 2. Whoever built the roads in Italy would never get a job in Germany.

From Palermo, Sicily, we boarded a ferry on the 21st, taking us to Tunisia and Africa. The ferry was an experience in itself and accompanied by seriously overloaded Tunisian cars we actually felt a bit anal about our packing. We had our things in boxes and firmly tied to the roof rack or floor and here everyone else had 2 mopeds, a fridge and 100kg of detergent on their roofs… kept in place by 3 meters of washing line and some duct tape.

In Tunisia we set camp in a small orchard at a hotel in Nabeul. We were shocked by the heat and spent most of the days in the shade under the trees; reading and drinking water.

We were now also planning the continuation of our trip. We had planned to go through Libya, but the red tape surrounding travel to Libya made things a bit hard for us. We needed a guide in our car at all time and thus had to find a tour operator that we thought could make our journey as pleasant as possible. Our choice fell on Jannat tours, and after visiting places as El Jem (great roman ruins) and Matmata (where they shot parts of Star Wars) it was time to meet our guide Lamin at the border to Libya. Now… if it had been smooth sailing we would just have to let Lamin in to the car and then ride off to the sunset… or rather sunrise since we were heading east. Now, this was not the case.

The Libyan border officials found our Arabic passport translations “unofficial” since they were not stamped in our passports, but on a separate page. After hours of discussion, begging and eventual apathy we were turned back to Tunisia. In retrospect this might have been a rather good thing since Gustav fell ill that night and spent the following two days lying in bed, semiconscious, with a high fever.

By the time Gustav was well again we had also gotten our “official” translations and on the 8th of July we finally entered Libya.

Libya was an experience. We had no idea what to expect, but we had not anticipated seeing such a beautiful country, meeting such wonderful people and having such great food. The ruins from the Greek and Roman populations were really impressive and well preserved. Regretfully we only had four nights in the country, which meant we didn’t have the time to stop at all sights.

On July 12th it was time for the next border crossing and thus the next ordeal. Getting out of Libya was a breeze. A computer breakdown did however result in a two-hour-wait, but we spent it in the comfort of our car with a fridge full of cold beverages and were eventually waved through first, as the computer was back online. Egypt, however, was a completely different story. 8 hours and 1,200 Egyptian pounds later we were in Egypt: hungry, angry and tired.

The first week we spent in a small hotel in Alexandria, a town that really grew on us! After driving through the desert in Libya the cool Mediterranean breeze that Alexandria offers was a very nice change. For four days we tried to leave for Cairo, only to find us both saying “only one more night… tomorrow we leave”.

When in Alexandria, one must of course visit the library. The building is however more impressive than the selection of books…

In Cairo we spent a whole week couch surfing (www.couchsurfing.com) at Tarek and Asser’s. During the stay we really got to know the life of an Egyptian family and we also had time to visit the pyramids as well as the Egyptian Museum. The museum was, however, a rather depressing experience since it was more like a poorly looked-after warehouse in an industrial harbor than a museum containing some of the world’s most impressive cultural treasures. Wonderful stone statues and sarcophagi were simply piled in the corners. There was a complete lack of information signs, and even lighting, and it seemed like being exposed in such environment did the objects more harm than good. A new museum is now being built and we must say it’s about time…

After Cairo we headed for the Red Sea coast where we spent a night in Hurghada before continuing to Luxor and eventually Aswan. In Luxor we saw a Land Rover 130 converted to a camper and after visiting the website written across the car we got in touch with Brazilian Roy and Michelle. We met the two overlanders in Aswan and decided to team up through Sudan. Roy and Michelle had been out for 1.5 years already, but were only halfway on their three-year trip around the world. Impressive! Follow them at www.mundoporterra.com.br, if you know Portuguese.

Monday the 5th of August we rolled our cars onto a small barge and ourselves onto a slightly larger boat, heading for Wadi Halfa, Sudan. It is actually rather ironic. Sudan and Egypt are both 90% desert and have a really long land border, but the only way to go between the two countries by land is to take a ferry across Lake Nasser.

Sudan was quite a change to Egypt. We had all gotten really tired of touristy, corrupt Egypt where everyone expects money and tries to rip you off. Crossing Lake Nasser made all of this go away. Wadi Halfa was a small, dusty desert outpost and its only reason for existence is the weekly ferry to/from Egypt, but it was so nice! The people were all friendly, the atmosphere completely different and yet the guidebooks stated that this place is Sudan at its worst.

We decided to head for Khartoum following the Nile. It’s not the closest way, but we had been told it would be beautiful. Besides, the other option was to go straight through the desert, something that didn’t seem so attractive given that the temperature was almost pushing 50 degrees Celsius…

The road we had chosen turned out to be more or less no road at all. Most of the time it was simple an assembly of tracks running somewhat parallel through the desert and at the times there actually was a road the corrugations were so bad that driving besides the road felt like a better option. It took us three days to drive the 300 kilometers to Dongola.

In Karima, 170 kilometers from Dongola, we spent the night near some old pyramids. Though they were not as impressive as their peers in Egypt, it was quite a feeling to wander around among them without any other tourist in sight.

In Khartoum we met Ian and Esther, a wonderful British couple working in Khartoum since a while back. They were too Land Rover as well as overland travel fans and we had a great time together, eating a very nice meal and exchanging stories. When leaving their house, where we had been offered the guest bedroom and gladly accepted, Gustav had to do his best to keep Kina from stealing Ian and Esther’s equally wonderful dog Hector, a two-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback.

We are now preparing for the next part of our trip: Ethiopia. We got our visas yesterday and now have to re-stock our supplies and also clean the cars inside and out: the last week has offered more dust than we thought possible and the cars are now as dirty on the inside as on the outside.